Amid a growing number of lawsuits filed nationwide over the about potential side effects of testosterone replacement therapy, new research raises questions about whether otherwise healthy men actually face an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

In a study presented this week at the American Heart Association Scientific Session in Orlando, researchers with the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City say they could find no link between testosterone treatment and cardiovascular risks.

Th findings are the latest in a long series of often contradictory studies that have evaluated whether certain groups of men may be more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke following use of popular testosterone drugs like Androgel, Axiron, Testim and others.

The agency also urged doctors not to prescribe testosterone drugs to patients who had not been confirmed as having hypogonadism through serum testosterone blood tests, as many experts agree that the “Low T” drugs have been widely overused in recent years by men with no real medical need for the treatment.

According to the FDA, testosterone drugs are meant to treat men suffering from hypogonadism, which causes abnormally low testosterone levels. The condition usually comes due to injuries or problems with the testicles or certain parts of the brain. The only way to confirm whether someone suffers from hypogonadism is through a serum testosterone blood test.

In this latest study, researchers looked at data on 1,472 generally healthy men between the ages of 52 and 63, who were patients at Intermountain. The study found no increased risk of heart attack or stroke, with researchers indicating that men who used testosterone supplements actually had a reduced risk of such problems.

In the federal court system, there are currently more than 2,700 cases consolidated as part of a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL), regardless of which low testosterone drug was used by the plaintiff. The lawsuits are centralized for pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in the Northern District of Illinois to reduce duplicative discovery into common issues in the cases, avoid conflicting rulings from different judges and to serve the convenience of the witnesses, parties and the courts.

Each of the claims raise similar allegations that the manufacturers failed to adequately research the side effects of the medications before aggressively marketing “low T” drugs for use by men who are experiencing natural drops in testosterone as they age.

As part of the coordinated pretrial proceedings in the MDL, a samll group of Androgel cases are being prepared for early trial dates that are expected to begin

As the debate over the safety of testosterone replacement therapy continues among some in the medical community, a growing number of and other product liability cases against manufacturers of “low T” drugs continue to be filed, alleging that inadequate research was conducted before marketing the drugs and that inadequate warnings were provided for consumers and the medical community.